Seriously? Bargaining, or discounts, in this example is very, very common all over the world. I have found Americans do less of it than in most parts of the world, such as China, Turkey, Thailand, Morocco, etc.
In the latter case the price starts high (to catch the people who will just pay anyway) then the price goes down, or there is a bait & switch (the bargain item advertised in the window is sold out, could we interest you in this instead?), or both. Perhaps the poster above is conflating "loud, brash, confident tourists bargaining" with "American tourists" - a pair of populations that certainly do intersect though not as much as commonly held stereotypes would suggest.